Joey Logano hits wall hard, makes early exit in Quaker State 400
And the hits just keep coming in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway.
Joey Logano became the third driver in the first 55 laps to clout the wall and do heavy damage to his car.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the first to crash on Lap 11, and six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson followed suit on Lap 33, after a restart for a competition caution.
Soon after, Logano made light contact with the outside wall, causing slight damage to the right rear of his Team Penske Ford.
But then on Lap 53, Logano lost a right-front tire on the backstretch and hit the Turn 3 wall hard enough to knock in the rim on the front of the No. 22. Like Stenhouse and Johnson before him, Logano headed straight to the garage.
“That was one of the hardest hits I’ve had in a while,” said Logano. “I had a long time to look at the wall before I hit it and not really slow down much before I got there and I’m alright, so it’s pretty cool to get through that. It just kind of stinks for our race team to be crashed out so early in the race, but we’ll just go back to Loudon and go back to work.”
Logano said the track was exceptionally slick.
“The first lap I was out there sideways and then tried to make a little bit of progress on it,” he said. “For me it was either you’re really loose in and really tight off, or you’re good in and decent off -- or at least it was for my car, so it is what it is.”
